Objectives
The overall objective of the project Mobility Scouts is to involve older men and women in decision-making processes and enable and empower them to contribute to the creation of age-friendly environments and services as co-producers.
The core idea of the project Mobility Scouts is to train older men and women to initiate coproduction processes. As “agents of change” Mobility Scouts bring together older citizens and local authorities and service providers to cooperate in the development of age-friendly environments and services.
Implementation
As EU project, the Mobility Scouts project was implemented through the following steps:
- European research on the status-quo of active citizenship of older people in creating an age-friendly environment in partner countries and other EU countries.
- Elaborating and implementing a training: Based on a joint curriculum in each partner country, older men and women were trained as Mobility Scouts and initiated co-production processes in their living environment.
- Publications: Organisations and local authorities obtained low-threshold information on co-producing age-friendly environments with older people in the Sensitization Handbook for Stakeholders. The Toolkit for Practitioners is an excellent basis for organisations and persons working with older people and interested in supporting them in initiating and implementing a co-production process.
- An Online training course enables people interested in participating as Mobility Scouts in regions where no Mobility Scouts Training is offered.
The queraum team was not only responsible for the coordination of the European partnership but also for the implementation of the training (including the Mobility Scouts projects) in Vienna. In 2019, new Mobility Scouts are trained and accompanied with their project work.
Partnership:
The European Mobility Scouts project involved partner organisations in five European countries: ISIS – Institut für Soziale Infrastruktur (DE), Lunaria (IT), OVN-NL, Oudere Vrouwen Netwerk – Nederland (NL), Seniors Initiatives Center (LT) and queraum. cultural and social research (AT, EU coordination). Furthermore, the project was supported by AGE Platform Europe.
